Leading Conservative Party lights have come under fire for giving speeches before a Tory fringe group that advocates mass deportation to Africa as a solution to immigration.

Former Cabinet ministers
Liam Fox and Owen Paterson spoke to the rightwing group this
year, despite its advocacy of extreme views, including the mass
deportation of immigrants to Africa, and suggesting that women
and men are not equal.

The London Swinton Circle was established in 1961, claiming to
support traditional Conservative and Unionist principles.

Its online newsletter courts controversial opinions, arguing
Islam by its nature is not peaceful and even using the racially
insensitive term “Negro migrants” to describe African
immigrants.

The group also claims to have been addressed by Tory MP
Christopher Chope, in addition to authors, journalists and other
political commentators.

Chairman Allan Barrie Robertson is also founder-editor of Tough
Talking from the Right, a newsletter which has campaigned against
gay marriage and climate change “scaremongering.”

Sam Swerling, a prominent activist in the group, according to
Searchlight magazine, is a former British National Party (BNP)
member and a current member of the British Democratic Party
(BDP).

The London Swinton Circle advocates the UK's exit from the EU,
national sovereignty and the restoration of capital punishment.
Its February 2014 newsletter discusses Prime Minister David
Cameron’s Immigration Bill in light of historical attempts to
deport African migrants living in London to Sierra Leone.

“Whilst only a few blacks were actually transported, the
episode serves as a precedent,” the newsletter said. “As
the principle of the mass movement of people is accepted by all
the mainstream parties, then would it not be difficult to argue
against the mass movement of people from Britain to, say, some
part of Africa?”

A newsletter from November 2013 features an article by Rev Dr
Alan Clifford, which argues that Islam as a religion is not
peaceful.

“The only difference between moderates and militants is
between those who keep their mouths shut and those who
don’t!” Clifford wrote.

Clifford was accused of making homophobic comments in 2013 after
he sent an open email to organizers of the LGBT festival Norwich
Pride with a leaflet titled, “Christ Can Cure – Good News for
Gays.”

While Prime Minister Cameron has committed his party to ending
the pay gap between men and women, this Tory fringe group argues
against the very idea of the two sexes being equal.

An article from its June 2012 newsletter reads: “Egalitarians
may well proclaim men and women as equal and pass laws forcing
people to treat men and women as if they were sexless men, but
that does not mean they actually are.”

A May 2012 newsletter went even further, stating: “Without a
husband a woman is but a sexual object to be shared around.”

Members of Nigel Farage’s UKIP have also addressed the London
Swinton Circle in recent years, the group claims.

With UKIP continuing to draw voters away from the Conservatives,
observers will wonder whether the Tories’ traditional support
base is more closely aligned to these controversial views than
the party leaders would like to admit.